Quite possibly by this time tomorrow, Baby Champuru will have arrived on the scene.

Bright and early tomorrow morning, I’ll be going in for inducement — just in time to fight the peak of rush hour traffic. We’re leaving an hour and a half early just in case, because you never know when there might be an unforeseen accident or stall to snarl traffic even more. If we’re early, we’ll just cruise at the coffee stand to relax before the real excitement begins.

Derek was kind enough to loan us his Hele wireless broadband card, so Hubby will be bringing his laptop to the hospital and we’ll try to make some updates from there. Just a heads up: Dreamhost was having some “issues” and champuru.net was down for a while today, so if you can’t get to this site tomorrow, check Twitter (microblog) and Flickr (photos) for updates.

I have heard that inducement can take a long time, even days. A twitter friend told me that for her second child, it took two days — her third child took three. Three days, people. Oh, my goodness.

As Hubby was busily rushing around the house cleaning, I called out to him: “Oh my gosh, someone on twitter said it took three days to deliver after she was induced!”

“Well, that’s better than them pumping you up with more drugs and making the contractions more intense, right?” he replied. Always positive, always looking for the silver lining. That’s just one of the many reasons why I love that man.

I would opt for slow and steady over fast and furious any day. After all, we’ve waited 41-1/2 weeks, what’s another couple of days? Right? Well, whatever the case, I’m just praying that the outcome will be a healthy baby — with no complications for Baby Champuru or myself. Even if it takes three days.

This will likely be the last blog update from home since we’re leaving the house early tomorrow morning. So, please wish me luck, pray for us, and check back for updates!

When your pregnancy goes into overtime, additional testing is required and today I arrived at the Queens Medical Center for another AFI (amniotic fluid index) and NST (non-stress test). This is my third NST and my second AFI since last week. It’s definitely made us more familiar with Queens and now we’re not worried about getting lost on the big day. I almost opted to deliver at Kapiolani for the mere fact that it is nearly impossible to get lost there, whereas Queens can seem like a labyrinth of hallways. The thought of being in labor and getting lost on our way to the Labor & Delivery Unit is frightening to a first time mama like me.

We started with the AFI, the ultrasound administered by a new technician who just moved to Hawaii. Last week’s ultrasound took all of 15 minutes, but today it lasted nearly 45 minutes. I can’t blame the technician completely, though. Baby Champuru was being pretty uncooperative, moving around and making it tough for the ultrasound tech to get a doppler reading of the blood flow in her brain. She kept moving her head, which was apparently in an odd position. So, the technician ended up calling in a more experienced staff member who was able to get the reading despite Baby Champuru’s hyperactivity in the womb. “She’s rockin’ and rollin’ in there,” the technician remarked.

Twice during the scanning, I started to feel faint from lying on my back and had to ask her to stop while I sat up to recover. I suspect that the uncomfortable position that I was in, with my back arching, my knees locking, and my feet dangling off the edge, contributed to the problem. The baby was likely putting pressure on the inferior vena cava, causing my lightheadedness. Thankfully, I managed to get through the test without passing out and the test results were good.

We then went upstairs to the Labor & Delivery Unit for the NST. Baby Champuru was still bouncing off my uterine walls when they hooked me up for the NST. I was pushing the button to track her movement almost continuously for the first several minutes. During this time, her heart rate was running higher than normal. I wonder if my discomfort during the ultrasound test had stressed her out? Or maybe it was the exciting episode of Monk that we were watching TV that was making her excited? The nurse kept me on the monitor for almost an hour and had the on-call doctor review the results since she thought her activity level and heart rate was running high at times. The doctor looked at the graph for a few minutes and said that baby was fine and that he would be more concerned if she wasn’t moving as much. Very active is better than lethargic, which may indicate a problem with the baby. With that, the nurse let us go and said, “see you Friday!”

9/29/08 Stats:
40 weeks and 5 days
Blood Pressure: 107/68
Weight gain so far: 12 pounds (no change in weight since 9/22/08)
Fetal Heartbeat: Good
Cervix Dilation: 1 cm

The day started with a trip to the OB’s office for my weekly appointment. We went through the same routine: urine sample, weight, blood pressure, fetal heart rate, and cervix check. Everything looked good and the best news of all is that my cervix is finally starting to show progress at 1 cm dilation.

I asked the doctor about whether it was an option to delay the inducement to sometime after the two weeks overdue point, but she said that it is preferable to induce sooner than that to reduce the risk of complications. I’ll be 41 weeks and 2 days by then. She answered my questions to my satisfaction and so she bid us farewell for now and proclaimed, “see you at the hospital on Friday!”

In the meantime, Hubby and I are making it a point to go walking every day and perhaps I’ll indulge myself in a nightly foot massage, too. Maybe Baby Champuru will surprise us and beat the inducement date.

I spent most of the day lounging around the house, watching the Discovery Channel (MythBusters and Planet Earth), and napping for the better part of the afternoon. For some reason, I felt exhausted today even though I didn’t do much of anything — well, besides two loads of laundry. I decided that it wasn’t a such a bad idea to allow myself to rest in preparation for the upcoming big event: labor and delivery. Whenever that may be.

After my appointment with the OB tomorrow morning, perhaps we’ll get a better idea. At the very least, I’m hoping that I’ve moved past zero on the dilation and effacement progress. Also on the agenda is discussing the possibility of postponing the inducement date, which is presently scheduled for this Friday, October 3. I’ve been thinking about it, and I’d like to go as drug-free as possible — and using drugs to induce labor just doesn’t feel right to me. Of course, if the health of the baby necessitates it or it is deemed medically necessary, then I am not opposed to inducing. But, inducing just for the sake of inducing — or for my personal convenience or comfort. No.

The subject of inducement came up only because I inquired about it. At my last appointment, I asked my OB, “at what point would you consider inducing?” I don’t know if she thought I was asking because I wanted the inducement, but immediately she started looking at the calendar and said, “let’s schedule it for Friday, October 3.” I suppose I should have asked more questions at the time, but I always feel somewhat rushed during my OB appointments and I often need time to process my thoughts before questions come to mind. Now that I’ve had a week to think about it, I hope to get some things clarified.

I’m hoping that the doctor will order a BPP (biophysical profile) on Baby Champuru. I’d like to know how large the baby is. After all, that is one of the big concerns when you have gestational diabetes. Of course, if Baby Champuru is already pushing 8-pounds, I’d opt for the inducement. We’ll see what the doc says tomorrow. Hopefully she won’t just dismiss my concerns and insist on staying with the original plan.

I notice that the baby dropped a little and I am breathing a little easier, and as expected, there is more pelvic floor pressure and some minor discomfort in my lower abdomen from time to time. The Braxton Hicks contractions are picking up and it seems that Baby Champuru has been more active today than before. I am hoping that these are signs that Baby Champuru is getting ready to make her big debut.

More updates to come!

Hooked up to monitors for the non-stress test.
Queens Hospital, Labor & Delivery Unit

I went in today for my second NST (non-stress test) at Queens Hospital, 10th floor Labor & Delivery Unit. The room they set me up in today was a bit smaller than previously, but comfortable enough. This time, the nurse showed me how to use the TV controller, so Hubby and I watched The Price is Right, hosted by Drew Carey. (Somehow, the show doesn’t have the same energy it had when Bob Barker was host.) Sadly, there really isn’t much of interest on daytime TV.

The nurse offered me ice water, which I graciously accepted. When I drank it, almost immediately, Baby Champuru started moving and her heart rate increased to 170 bpm. (Normal fetal heart rate is 120 - 160 bpm.) It appears that the dousing of ice cold water startled her and rudely awakened her from her slumber. After that, it seemed that she settled back in and went back to sleep, because she was pretty still for most of the test and her heart rate went back down to ~150 bpm.

About 15 minutes through the test, the nurse came in and studied the scroll of paper that the monitor was spitting out. “Hmm… is baby sleeping?”

“I think so,” I replied. “She was moving earlier, after I drank the water.”

“Try switching positions, maybe it’ll wake baby up,” she recommended. “Shift to your right, then come back this way.”

I did, but Baby Champuru didn’t budge. The nurse shook my tummy a bit, then put the TV remote (which contained a speaker) against my stomach, hoping that it would rouse my sleepy baby. Still nothing.

“I hate to do this, but I think we’ll need the buzzer,” she said and left the room.

I looked over at Hubby. “The buzzer?”

She returned with a handheld gadget. “Where did they say baby’s head was?” she asked. I indicated that at the last ultrasound on Tuesday, they said that her head was down. So, she positioned the buzzer against the top part of my abdomen and pushed the button. A sharp buzzing noise and vibration hit my tummy. Although it was not painful or uncomfortable to me, it was enough to scare the living daylights out of Baby Champuru because she kicked suddenly and started moving around.

Satisfied, the nurse left and returned a few minutes later with my OB who had been doing her morning rounds. The doc took a quick glance at the results and said everything looked fine.

So, unless Baby Champuru decides to come over the weekend, we’ll be seeing the OB on Monday again. I wonder if there’s been any dilation/effacement in the past week?

I was wondering what would happen with my baby ticker once I hit my due date (yesterday). The counter was at zero yesterday (see image to the left), but today it’s showing “1 day to go”. I guess the baby ticker creators didn’t take into consideration the late-comers like Baby Champuru and didn’t write that into the program.

Today, I’m not feeling much different from yesterday. The baby still feels like she’s sitting pretty high, right under my ribcage, and I haven’t felt that “lightening” effect that I’ve read about. Supposedly, when the baby drops into position, there’s supposed to be more space to allow your ribcage to expand, which would make it easier to breathe. But then again, I’ve read that there are also some undesirable effects of lightening, such as additional pressure on the rectum and pelvic floor which causes more frequent trips to the restroom and the feeling that the baby is going to fall out. (Yikes…) I’m not too concerned that I haven’t dropped yet, as it differs for everyone and some women don’t experience lightening until they’re in active labor — while some drop weeks before they’re ready to give birth.

If nothing else, I’m learning that in pregnancy nothing is the same for everyone and I just have to take it as it comes.

Last week, I posed the burning question, whether there would be a week 40 photo of my bare belly and here we are. Today marks my due date, but it seems that Baby Champuru is still intent on delaying her debut. As of tomorrow, Baby Champuru officially goes into overtime.

As I write this, baby is doing somersaults in my uterus, enjoying the last few days of her cozy, albeit cramped, environment.

I don’t know if it’s my imagination, or just wishful thinking, but today my stomach has been feeling heavier and tighter. I’ve had crampy feelings in my lower abdomen off-and-on and my lower back has been achy since I woke up this morning. However, I suspect that the lower back pain could be because I slept nine hours straight last night. So, I have been feeling slightly different than before. I’m still pretty energetic and I did a bit of cleaning, two loads of laundry and went grocery shopping this afternoon to make sure we were stocked with some necessities since it’s literally any day now. My sleeping schedule has been pretty much midnight to 8:00 am, although I know that will change as soon as baby arrives.

Hubby has just one more day of work before he goes on leave for three weeks, so the timing would be great if she arrived this weekend. On the other hand… the thought of it happening within the next few days also scares the living daylights out of me, too. I mean, I know it’s going to happen eventually, but still. Holy smokes, we’re going to have a baby! (As you can see, I still haven’t come to terms with it yet! Crazy, I know.)

All I know is that I want Hubby to be here when the contractions start, so if she could wait until at least this Friday, I’d appreciate it. In fact, I’ll already be at Queens doing my non-stress test (NST) in the Labor & Delivery Unit anyway, so if she decided to come then… we’d already be there! How convenient would that be?

I filmed a videolog entry to commemorate my 40th week of pregnancy. Will there be a week 41?